Exporting local expertise

Mar 27 2008 By The Journal

COLLABORATION between two firms of architects in Newcastle and the Irish Republic has resulted in planning permission for a £39m hospital and hospice in Cork.

Newcastle practice Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall (JDDK) Ltd and Irish architects Scott Tallon Walker teamed up to design the 15,000sq m building on 13 acres.

Ian Clarke, a JDDK director who specialises in hospitals and hospices, said: “It’s a great project on which we’ve been working with our Irish colleagues for many months and we’re very pleased that we now have the go-ahead.

“Collaboration between architectural practices isn’t unusual nowadays and the geographical separation simply hasn’t been an issue.

“We knew the senior Scott Tallon Walker personnel socially and by design reputation and they knew of our track record at the award-winning St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds and St Oswald’s Hospice in Newcastle, and the work we have done on the Cabe-sponsored Healthy Hospitals campaign, so we were delighted to be asked to work together on the design.

“The process involved a full collaboration on master planning the building, with JDDK bringing our hospice, landscape and evidence-based design experience to the table, and we are now taking the lead on the patient areas, right down to the fine detail.

“By their very nature, hospices can be highly stressed environments, dealing directly with patients with life-limiting conditions and their families, so that our design work has centred on promoting the psychological comfort and sense of self-esteem of all those experiencing the building.”

The firm was now advising the Irish Hospice Foundation on its Design and Dignity programme to improve environments for end-of-life care in all Irish hospitals.